Hyderabad: Rachakonda police in a major crackdown on the land mafia smuggling red soil and gravel by digging HMDA lands at Jawaharnagar and supplying to different parts of the city arrested 12 persons including two organisers.
DCP Malkajgiri Ch. R. Umamaheswara Sarma said that the suspects dug the soil from the lands and were selling it to needy people in the city. Officials from the revenue, geology department also participated in the operation.
Ten tippers and two earth moving machines were seized during the raids. According to police, G. Narsimha Reddy and his brother Srinivas Reddy, both residents of Alwal were involved in this illegal business for the past two years.
They deployed two earth movers in the land located behind the Army Dental College spread across around 200 acres. The two were digging the soil in the top layer and the gravel in the second layers. The mud was loaded into tippers and transported to other places.
In this manner, they dug soil for more than 15 feet deep in the area. Each tipper load of soil and gravel was sold for around Rs 5,000 in the market outside.
Based on a tip-off, cops conducted raids in the early morning and caught the suspects red-handed. Based on a complaint from HMDA officials, a case under charges of Criminal tress pass, theft and Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act was booked at Jawaharnagar Police station. Also, the arrested suspects were produced before the court.
Police sources said that though the illegal business was going on for a very long time, none of the concerned officials had any information or took any action on the suspects.
